Thoughts Become Things: How To Kick The Fat Habit

Thoughts Become Things: How To Kick The Fat Habit

Familiar things make us feel comfortable. Appropriately, our everyday lives often involve familiar routines or habits. This is where the problem lies, especially when it comes to eating and weight loss.

Comfortable, Distracted And Fat

Watching TV on the sofa with a glass of wine, nibbling on cheese, crackers or crisps may be a familiar, comforting part of your day, but if you’re suffering from the symptoms and challenges of being overweight, what exactly is that routine doing for you? How is that behaviour serving you? The answer is… it’s NOT.

It’s distracting you and making you FAT!

Beneath The Surface

Aside from what’s going on externally in your world, you have an internal ‘habit of thought’ and a ‘habit of behaviour’. The behaviours are triggered by the thoughts.

This can be simplified into ‘thought -> action = reward’.

You feel stressed or tired -> you need to relax -> you THINK of the taste of that glass of wine and the satisfying crunch of those crisps = you take ACTION and dive into the REWARDing world of TV, wine and snacks.

THIS is making you FATTER.

Introducing The Unfamiliar

So how do we kick the bad habit? We introduce new habits of thoughts into your mind. We delve into the world of the unfamiliar. No matter how you want to look at it, the reality is that to shed the weight, you’re going to have to think and behave differently. Thinking means simply choosing what’s currently unfamiliar to you.

Do I want the two sugars in my latte or can I choose less milk and no sugar? Should I watch TV on the sofa with some wine or can I choose to go outside for a walk? Do I need the bar of chocolate or cream bun, or can I snack on some fruit instead? The answers are simple if you really want to become slimmer, fitter and healthier.

The ‘habit of behaviour’ – also known as ‘taking action’ – is often the most uncomfortable because it’s very unfamiliar and it brings with it an abundance of new thoughts, feelings and sensations.

It’s uncomfortable because the old ‘fatty’ habit has been used so often that it has become embedded deeply into your subconscious mind. So any diversion from this old way of thinking creates an instantly uncomfortable feeling. Your secret weapon is repetition and this is a key process behind the efficacy of hypnotherapy.

Think. Act. Repeat. Habit.

Imagine that a thought is like a person walking through a forest. In front of them is a clear pathway, but it sometimes doesn’t lead them to where they really want to go. So, what do they do?

They have to create a new pathway leading towards their destination. They have to walk over untrodden ground on an unfamiliar route and this feels uncomfortable, maybe a little strange or even exciting because of all the uncertainty and unfamiliarity involved.

To create a new pathway for yourself, you must repeatedly take step after step towards your destination. This means frequently introducing new thoughts to your mind which oppose the old direction. Repetition is the key to creating new habits.

After repeatedly telling your mind to accept a new thought – like choosing the healthier option over the fatty option – it soon becomes more a comfortable thought and taking action towards health then becomes second nature.

First You Do It, Then It Becomes Who You Are

To change any actions, you should never suppress thoughts. Instead, encourage the change to healthy thoughts repetitively – we all have the power to create good habits to replace the bad ones.

The repetition needs to be practiced for a good week or two so that new thoughts become a fixed way of thinking. A great way to do this is to practice self-hypnosis or to listen to an audio product produced by a trained hypnotherapist.

When your thoughts become healthier, your behaviour follows suit and the whole process actually becomes a part of who you are.

Richard specialises in treating the symptoms that lead to weight gain, such as stress and anxiety, and ultimately weight management itself.
Richard says, “Helping everyone is uniquely satisfying and that’s why my business isn’t a job – it’s a passion!”

2 Comments

This is an excellent blog Richard. I particularly like the analogy of the pathway through the forest, it is simply and imaginatively put. In my experience some weight loss hypnotherapists spout complex theories about what the brain of a fat person is doing and why they overeat, and fail to address the practical solutions necessary to get the weight off! Ultimately that is what a fat person wants, not all the waffly jargon. Love this!

Great blog Richard. It is true that we have to adopt change in order to reach our end goal. Quite often tweaking what we eat and drink makes a massive difference. When I start a new client on my weight loss programme I will always ask them what their end goal is. Under hypnosis I am able to embed that end goal in the clients mind so they are always extremely motivated to lose weight.